Walter

Hello, Wally has settled into the pack nicely. He is no longer afraid to have his collar taken off or put back on, he lets me towel dry him after his bath or when its rained, he is respectful of the others as they eat from a community food bowl, has stopped whining while riding in the car, and is learning how to be sociable with people when we are out in public. We have not had the opportunity to go to the dog park yet but we don't feel like there will be any issues that he could not overcome if they would arise with him. After a couple of times darting out of the door, he has now learned to stay until he's invited out. He is very vocal when outside at home but does not bark when out in social circles. He does not have to be crated when let home with the others. He did has some issues with Gideon in the beginning but that has been resolved. He actually will stand under Gideon when he feels insecure in public. Unfortunately, he will not be doing therapy work after all because he does not have the temperament needed to do the work. He has had a few head tremors but they are not consistent. They usually only last about a minute or so. Spoke with the vet's office about it and I'm going to video tape it so they can access it to see if he may be having facial seizure. Good news, Wally was retested yesterday for heartworm and is negative. YEAH!!!! I am sending you pictures from various situations during the last four months. Hope you enjoy! Thanks everybody for a great Doberman!! Sincerely, Lisa & Mike Hug as well as the Tons O' Hugs Crew Merlin 9 years old, Bebe Bit 7 years old, Thor 7 years old, Gideon 5 years old & Wally 3 years old

Walter

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already! Walter is doing better than ever with each passing day. When we picked him up, Shelly thought it might take him several months to really relax and start trusting us, guessing because she wasn’t sure what all he’d been through. It actually took much longer. It was probably around 9 to 10 months before he really started to look at us like a Doberman looks at his parents. It was so emotional to see. Now, we feel he really does know that this is his home and we are his parents. That’s not to say he wasn’t good those 9 or 10 months, he was excellent, but he’d have times of fear and insecurity that were hard for him to overcome, especially at the beginning. Those became less and less frequent and are all but gone now. On the date of his adoption, we are also celebrating as his birthday, since we don’t have a date of birth. In consultation with the vet, we think he just turned six! To celebrate, we took him to the park and then to PetSmart so he could pick out a new toy….adding to his growing collection. We walk him every day weather permitting and take him to the park frequently, but it’s almost like he knew this was different. Maybe it was the birthday song we kept singing. :) Below are pictures from his birthday yesterday, and also some we took over the past year. We have many, many more if you’d like to see them. LOL Thank you for rescuing our precious Walter, we love him so much!